We drove to the central coast in Lou’s car with Margaret and the kids in her car. She was pulling a trailer so that Lou can retrieve some furniture that he loaned to a friend. We’ll do that after our trip north to visit Lou’s brother Tony. The trip to the central coast ordinarily takes about 3-1/2 hours. However, the traffic was very heavy once we crossed over the mountains. This weekend is the final weekend of the school holiday, kind of like our Labor Day weekend. School starts again here on Tuesday, so traffic was heavy with folks returning from their summer vacations.
We are going to the central coast, Lou’s old neighborhood, to spend a few days with his sister Gloria and her husband Alex. This afternoon, several family members are coming together to see us. Alex just sold a house he built a few years ago that was quite a house, right on Brisbane Water. In its place he purchased a property with acreage and a mature garden with pool. He prefers space around him, so the house we are visiting is the kind of place he likes. Gloria prefers being on the water. Alex bought a second property directly across the water from their old house. They aren’t sure yet how they will use the two properties, but Alex will have a new jetty built at the water property so he can dock his two-masted timber sailboat, which he is trying to sell and may buy a large cabin cruiser in its place, so a jetty is important for him to have. But the remarkable thing is that they have only been in the acreage house about 6 weeks and it looks like they’ve been there a long time. It was amazing to see everything all moved in and tidy. In another post I’ll show photos of the two properties. Today’s post is all about family.
By the time we arrived at Gloria and Alex’s, the gathering was in full swing. Gloria and Alex have 5 boys and 4 were there with some of their children. A fifth son, Darren and his wife Selina, came to Rylstone to see us because they were going to be away on holiday today. I know you, dear reader, will not be terribly interested in today’s post because it will be photos of the family with names. It’s important to Christine that I keep track of everyone so she can recall who is who. So here goes.
The Calleia sons are Craig and ex-wife, but still involved Leann, Darren and wife Selina, Warwick and partner Cherie, Martyn and wife Andrea, and Bradley and wife Fiona. As I said, all the sons were there except Darren and Selina. In addition, Lou’s sister Marianne was there as well as Lou’s brother Len and wife Sandy. Lou’s niece Samantha and husband Chris stopped by later. Some of their kids were present and mostly in the pool, Martyn’s kids Owen and Elsie, and Warwick’s son Jazz. Of course, Margaret, Clare and Daniel were there.
Everyone contributed a dish to pass and we had a wonderful lunch with nearly everyone sitting around a very long table in Gloria’s wonderfully large kitchen. It was fun to be part of the gathering and catch up with those that we knew and get to know those that we hadn’t met before.
For most of the afternoon, many of us who weren’t in the pool, sat around a large table under a wonderfully cool pergola at the end of the house that had vines growing all over it. It was a lovely place to sit and talk.
By dinnertime, most of the family was heading home. Warwick and Cherie stayed for dinner and we had leftovers from lunch, and still had two more meals of leftovers the next 2 days. It was nice getting to know Warwick. We talked cooking a bit and he shared with me his treatment for diabetes and how he changed his diet to control his disease. He also has been a great help to Gloria and Alex in making some modifications around their new home and he’ll be helping to get the prep done for installation of an elevator to the second floor. Most traditional Aussie houses, like the one Alex/Gloria are in, are one floor, but somewhere along the line someone constructed a beautiful master suite with bathroom over about half of the house. It has a long set of stairs, so installing an elevator is a good thing for Alex and Gloria.
It was a really nice day and I feel very privileged to be adopted into the Caruana/Calleia family. I’m very lucky to have a wonderful Aussie family, and I know Christine is thrilled to be here and spending time with her Aussie cousins.
Linda- you saved our house by suggesting the elevator that your neighbor had. We can highly recommend add one